Miami attorney Martin Sandler is getting some embarrassing publicity from the Smoking Gun. The website learned about a continuance motion he filed yesterday with a typo and promptly added it to their website. It seems that Mr. Sandler is recovering from back surgery for a herniated disk. Unfortunately, that’s not quite what he wrote.

We all make typos from time to time, so I’ll take this opportunity to provide a few quick proofreading tips.

1) Print it out. I find that it’s easier to catch errors in printed documents than on the computer screen where I tend to skim.

2) Read it out loud. When you read to yourself you can easily skip over words or insert words that aren’t there. Reading out loud makes it painfully obvious if you’ve skipped a word or something just doesn’t sound right.

3) Read the second half first. That’s usually where the errors creep in.

4) Take a break before re-reading. It’s much easier to find errors when your mind isn’t stuck in the stream of conscious flow. Take a 20 minute break to clear your mind so you can read it fresh.

5) Know your common mistakes. There are certain words I always seem to spell wrong. Unfortunately, spell check programs only pick out the non-words, so if you know you’re inclined to spell something wrong, do a word search.

6) Have someone else read it over. A second pair of eyes is always helpful for catching what you don’t.

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